Quannah Chasinghorse: The Indigenous Model And Activist Redefining Beauty Standards 

Born in the Navajo Nation territory of Tuba City in Arizona, 19-year-old Quannah Chasinghorse is a singular force of representation in an industry that has long excluded Indigenous people. The fashion model – whose ancestry is both Raven Clan of the Hän Gwich’in tribe on her mother’s side and Sicangu/Oglala Lakota on her father’s – has undergone a quick ascent. Since being signed by IMG following a breakout Calvin Klein campaign in 2020, she’s made several high-profile catwalk appearances, including for Gucci, Chloé and Gabriela Hearst. Now she’s a Chanel favourite, appearing in the label’s SS22 campaign and show.  

Chasinghorse – a present voice in Indigenous land rights and climate change activism long before the casting agents came calling – is perhaps best distinguishable by her traditional Yidįįłtoo facial tattoos. The markings that sit on her chin and surround her eyes were hand-poked by her mother and illustrate a rite of passage representative of her life events thus far – a process that dates back over 10,000 years. Chasinghorse was the first girl in over a century to have a Yidįįłtoo at her coming of age ceremony aged 14, after the practice was banned under colonisation. 

Though these markings are important signifiers of Chashinghorse’s Indigenous roots, her ancestors, their teachings and practices, when placed in the context of the fashion campaigns, catwalks and covers she has graced (including Vogue Mexico and Elle USA), they take on a broader significance. Here, these tattoos, and Chasinghorse herself, illustrate the industry’s gradual acceptance of global identities that exist beyond white Western ideals.  

Naomi Pike, previously an editor at British Vogue, is a freelance writer based in London